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A Pest Inspection Will Add Important Info to a Home Inspection · PEST PROSpectives

• 0:08
  Richard Piet: I'm Richard Piet.
• 0:10
  Richard Piet: This is Pest Prospectives.
• 0:11
  Richard Piet: It's the official podcast from the Pest Pros of Michigan.
• 0:15
  Richard Piet: Have you heard some of these episodes?
• 0:17
  Richard Piet: Because if you haven't, you want to subscribe, follow, whatever the right word is, because there are a ton of these.
• 0:24
  Richard Piet: And boy, do we talk about some things that you'll want to know about bed bugs, uh, wildlife, including some wild stories about wildlife that you ought to hear.
• 0:37
  Richard Piet: So that's all part of this series.
• 0:39
  Richard Piet: Today, if you're a homeowner or even a home occupant, you may want to know about these things.
• 0:47
  Richard Piet: We're going to talk about home inspections and pest inspections and the overlap between the two.
• 0:55
  Richard Piet: Tony Sorentino, of course, is back with us, associate certified entomologist with Pest Pros, and Larry Mason is here with Great Lakes Home Inspections.
• 1:04
  Richard Piet: Welcome to you both.
• 1:05
  Richard Piet: Thanks, Richard.
• 1:06
  Richard Piet: All right, Larry, let's start by just giving us a sense of what a home inspection is supposed to do.
• 1:13
  Larry Mason: Yeah.
• 1:13
  Larry Mason: Thanks for the question, Richard.
• 1:15
  Larry Mason: Um, I've been a licensed Michigan builder and certified home inspector now almost 30 years.
• 1:19
  Larry Mason: I can't believe it myself.
• 1:21
  Larry Mason: Um, I think in the early years, you almost had to like convince people like, uh, don't trust your Uncle Charlie to look at the house you're buying.
• 1:28
  Larry Mason: You better pay an actual third-party independent home inspector to see what the heck you're buying.
• 1:33
  Larry Mason: Uh, now you don't have that argument anymore.
• 1:36
  Larry Mason: Everybody understands the value and the need for home inspection.
• 1:39
  Larry Mason: If you're buying a house, it's a huge investment, it's a lot of money.
• 1:43
  Larry Mason: You better pay a service to go through the house and just be unbiased and a little bit of a scientific method and just test everything out, give you a real detailed report of what's going on with the house.
• 1:55
  Larry Mason: Is the roof too old?
• 1:56
  Larry Mason: Do you have plumbing leaks?
• 1:58
  Larry Mason: Um, we're responsible for structure, but we're not responsible for pest control.
• 2:02
  Larry Mason: That's a different spectrum.
• 2:04
  Richard Piet: What about Uncle Charlie?
• 2:05
  Richard Piet: He's not a good one for that.
• 2:06
  Richard Piet: Wouldn't he?
• 2:07
  Richard Piet: Wouldn't he want to see all these things and have your best interest, especially at heart?
• 2:13
  Richard Piet: What's the difference, Larry?
• 2:14
  Larry Mason: Relatives cause some issues sometimes during transactions.
• 2:17
  Larry Mason: We often joke that we should charge more if you bring your relatives and your okay.
• 2:22
  Larry Mason: Um there actually are a few things.
• 2:24
  Larry Mason: Um, he liability reasons, he may not have permission to be on the property.
• 2:29
  Larry Mason: Um, if he does turn over some kind of report, likely if he is known to you, he's just gonna try to verbally tell you what's wrong, but that doesn't do the buyer and the buyer's agent any good.
• 2:38
  Larry Mason: They need a professional written report to negotiate with.
• 2:41
  Larry Mason: And then if the seller was to get wind that if you didn't have an arm's length transaction, if it was Uncle Charlie or somebody like that, they're not gonna care about the report.
• 2:53
  Larry Mason: They're not gonna negotiate with you.
• 2:54
  Larry Mason: It has to be an independent person turning that report over.
• 2:57
  Richard Piet: Yeah, uh, think about that.
• 2:58
  Richard Piet: So you don't own the house yet, and uh Uncle Charlie comes over and he's up in the attic, he's doing his thing.
• 3:06
  Richard Piet: And by that you mean uh he as an individual may not have permission to be there.
• 3:11
  Larry Mason: Yeah.
• 3:11
  Larry Mason: Correct, Richard.
• 3:12
  Larry Mason: We have insurance, we have licenses, we belong to two different boards of realtors.
• 3:17
  Larry Mason: They all have codes of ethics and rules and what we're allowed to do, what we're not allowed to do.
• 3:21
  Larry Mason: We have access to the realtor key boxes to get into these homes.
• 3:24
  Larry Mason: I think a seller would be quite uncomfortable if they knew a buyer was bringing a personal acquaintance through to do the quote home inspection.
• 3:33
  Richard Piet: Yeah.
• 3:33
  Richard Piet: Okay.
• 3:34
  Richard Piet: Fair enough.
• 3:35
  Richard Piet: All right, Tony.
• 3:36
  Richard Piet: A pest inspection.
• 3:38
  Richard Piet: What is that meant to do?
• 3:40
  Tony Sorrentino: We have a couple of different um choice points that we have for pest inspection.
• 3:46
  Tony Sorrentino: We have the standard, it's an industry standard.
• 3:49
  Tony Sorrentino: It's done with uh in accordance with the National Pest Management Association, it's nationally recognized.
• 3:55
  Tony Sorrentino: We're looking at structural building elements, interior and exterior, to determine the presence or lack thereof of wood-destroying pests.
• 4:05
  Tony Sorrentino: And for the purpose of the inspection that we that we do, it's carpenter ants, carpenter bees, wood boring beetles, and the big ones termites.
• 4:14
  Tony Sorrentino: And we've talked about termites before.
• 4:16
  Tony Sorrentino: But that's what we're looking for evidence of.
• 4:18
  Tony Sorrentino: It doesn't, it's it's not evidence of mice, it's not evidence of decay rot or wood-destroying fungus.
• 4:25
  Tony Sorrentino: We'll talk about conducive conditions that create the perfect environment for wood-destroying pests to live and thrive and and potentially destroy your home.
• 4:35
  Richard Piet: So those are the top things that you're looking for in this situation.
• 4:40
  Tony Sorrentino: The other inspection that we do is called a CPA, and that's a critical pest assessment.
• 4:44
  Tony Sorrentino: And that's gonna include your wildlife, your your bats, your attic space, your rooftop, and uh wood destroying insect inspection and report.
• 4:53
  Tony Sorrentino: We're gonna be looking at the the finished parts of the house, the unfinished parts of the house, the substructure, whether it's a crawl space or basement, um, determining if the house is on a slab, doing the complete inspection of the visible parts of the home, the accessible parts of the home.
• 5:09
  Richard Piet: So, Larry, you you get hired to do a home inspection, and you're you're doing these things.
• 5:16
  Richard Piet: I mean, you know, if there's a bat in the attic, you're probably gonna see it, right?
• 5:20
  Richard Piet: So so why are these things separate?
• 5:23
  Larry Mason: The home inspector, uh, we have enough things on our plate.
• 5:26
  Larry Mason: We have to worry about the roof age, the foundation, the structure, the doors, the windows, the plumbing, the electric, the heating, cooling, roof attic insulation.
• 5:37
  Larry Mason: Um, I probably forgot 12 other ones.
• 5:39
  Larry Mason: We have a lot on our plate, and we're good at what we do, and we identify these defects day in and day out, but we're not licensed pest professionals.
• 5:47
  Larry Mason: It is a separate trade and a separate profession.
• 5:50
  Larry Mason: You need somebody that's gonna be able to tell you if they're seeing evidence of bat droppings, mice droppings, uh, termites, rodents.
• 5:58
  Larry Mason: The big three in Michigan, at least, home inspectors uh are a must, pest inspectors are a must, and radon testing, it seems to be the big three.
• 6:07
  Larry Mason: I don't have to talk people into it.
• 6:08
  Larry Mason: Home buyers are getting home radon and pest inspections without even talking them into it.
• 6:13
  Larry Mason: Um, very rarely do I hear of anybody trying to skip any of those.
• 6:18
  Larry Mason: They just often say, sign me up.
• 6:20
  Richard Piet: Yeah, and they probably get an advocate for those things in their realtor whom they have entrusted with this process.
• 6:28
  Richard Piet: So they already have a relationship with that person that is significant and trustworthy, and they're probably telling them, you know, this is a good idea.
• 6:38
  Richard Piet: That's another thing.
• 6:39
  Larry Mason: I think that's a good point.
• 6:40
  Larry Mason: Yes.
• 6:40
  Larry Mason: If if the agent that's supposed to be working for you, the buyer, says, Oh, you don't need any of that stuff, wouldn't that be a huge red flag?
• 6:49
  Richard Piet: Yeah, I suppose that makes sense.
• 6:51
  Larry Mason: You want to know what you're buying.
• 6:52
  Larry Mason: And sometimes you can negotiate uh fixes depending on what's found, and and sometimes you can't, but at least you you know while you're still in control during the the buy-sell contract that you have some options for negotiation or maybe change your mind if something was drastic enough.
• 7:09
  Larry Mason: Maybe you don't buy the house, but at least you know what what's going to happen going forward.
• 7:14
  Richard Piet: So, Tony, you get the call, right?
• 7:15
  Richard Piet: Uh somebody like Larry calls you and says, look, we we've got a customer and they want a pest inspection, and you're in the loop.
• 7:23
  Tony Sorrentino: Typically they they they'll send it in.
• 7:26
  Tony Sorrentino: Um, I've got an inspection at this address.
• 7:30
  Tony Sorrentino: Uh I'd be there between 11 and 1.
• 7:33
  Tony Sorrentino: And we'll we'll we're pretty flexible and we've got we've got people in and all over our region to get these these inspections done in a timely manner and and help provide a more succinct view of what they're purchasing.
• 7:47
  Tony Sorrentino: It's like when you take in a used car that you're looking at buying and you take it to the mechanic to have them look, you know, kick the tires, look under the hood, make sure there's no head gasket leak or you know, subterranean termites or what have you.
• 8:00
  Richard Piet: Or a mouse in there somewhere, which could happen.
• 8:04
  Richard Piet: So, Larry, you you then accept as the home inspector the pest control report, the pest inspection, and present it as part of your report, or is it separate?
• 8:16
  Larry Mason: Uh, it is separate.
• 8:16
  Larry Mason: I think there's probably a lot of logical reasons for that.
• 8:19
  Larry Mason: One of the reasons, if you hire a pest control company for a pest inspection and they find a problem, they're also going to be able to estimate the fix, the repair, what you know, whatever the treatment is.
• 8:30
  Larry Mason: Um, and you need that as a buyer to negotiate with the seller.
• 8:33
  Larry Mason: So we always recommend hire a good pest control company to do your pest inspection.
• 8:38
  Larry Mason: I I sub it out.
• 8:39
  Larry Mason: I trust great companies like Pest Pros of Michigan to do the work.
• 8:43
  Larry Mason: And that happens all the time if the realtor and or the buyer want to make that one stop, that one phone call and say, hey, just set up, set it up for me so I don't have to contact three different people.
• 8:53
  Larry Mason: And I believe, Tony, you issue reports same day, typically.
• 8:56
  Tony Sorrentino: Yeah, we we do.
• 8:57
  Tony Sorrentino: We typically will try to have it out same day or uh by nine o'clock the next morning.
• 9:02
  Richard Piet: You make a great point, Larry, about the idea that if there is an issue, the whole point, I think, of the inspections, pest or home, are to understand what that's gonna cost so you can go back to the seller and be clear about that.
• 9:20
  Larry Mason: Exactly, Richard.
• 9:21
  Larry Mason: That that is most of the point of getting these inspections.
• 9:24
  Larry Mason: Now, sometimes I'll have a buyer say, the realtors told me this was a as-is sale, as is transaction.
• 9:31
  Larry Mason: And I've found over the many years there is no such thing as a as-is transaction.
• 9:35
  Larry Mason: Because if you find a problem that's large enough, you still may choose to back away.
• 9:40
  Larry Mason: And then guess what?
• 9:42
  Larry Mason: The sellers say, Why are you pulling out?
• 9:44
  Larry Mason: And you'll say, Because my home inspector found bad roof, found this, found that.
• 9:48
  Larry Mason: And they often still will negotiate and keep you in that transaction.
• 9:52
  Richard Piet: As is, is in the eye of the beholder, I guess.
• 9:56
  Larry Mason: Yes.
• 9:57
  Richard Piet: Yeah.
• 9:58
  Larry Mason: If you were the seller, yeah, you'd probably feel differently.
• 10:00
  Richard Piet: That's probably true.
• 10:01
  Richard Piet: So, Tony, you do the inspection, and there's a problem.
• 10:07
  Richard Piet: I presume that uh what helps bring context to what kind of money we're talking about is when you say, here's what it will cost to handle this situation.
• 10:20
  Tony Sorrentino: We'll do a detailed treatment plan structured for the house that we're looking at, and then we don't miss.
• 10:27
  Richard Piet: I'll ask this question to both of you.
• 10:28
  Richard Piet: Does it matter which comes first, the home inspection or the pest inspection?
• 10:34
  Larry Mason: You can I take that, Tony?
• 10:36
  Larry Mason: So so typically, thank you.
• 10:38
  Larry Mason: Um typically we'll book them both.
• 10:41
  Larry Mason: And there's some practical reasons for that.
• 10:43
  Larry Mason: The seller doesn't want to be inconvenienced with multiple appointments.
• 10:46
  Larry Mason: They want that window.
• 10:47
  Larry Mason: They're like, okay, next Monday between 12 and 3 is the home inspection and the pest inspection.
• 10:52
  Larry Mason: Just go get it done.
• 10:53
  Larry Mason: I'll leave the house.
• 10:54
  Larry Mason: You know, we don't want to do this repeatedly.
• 10:56
  Larry Mason: It's going to inconvenience the seller.
• 10:58
  Larry Mason: So yeah, yeah, we'll we'll try to keep them together as much as possible.
• 11:02
  Richard Piet: Does it matter to you, Tony, which is which?
• 11:04
  Richard Piet: Nope.
• 11:05
  Richard Piet: Long as I can get on site and get in the house.
• 11:08
  Richard Piet: So that could mean that the pest inspector and the home inspector are there at the same time, maybe?
• 11:15
  Larry Mason: That happens quite often.
• 11:16
  Larry Mason: Uh sometimes we joke if if if we find termite tubes before the pest inspector arrived, then we can point them out.
• 11:22
  Larry Mason: But then sometimes the Tony's laughing.
• 11:24
  Larry Mason: Sometimes it happens the other way, where the pest inspector found a whole bunch of structural damage in the basement or crawl space because the termites are like, hey, you better go look at the northeast corner.
• 11:33
  Larry Mason: There's something bad over there.
• 11:35
  Larry Mason: So yeah, often it's the same day, same window, but one may arrive before the other.
• 11:40
  Richard Piet: And uh the result is as we've indicated.
• 11:44
  Richard Piet: You have a full report, and and I've seen these.
• 11:49
  Richard Piet: I've been a buyer myself.
• 11:50
  Richard Piet: I've seen these inspection reports are nice, thick reports, as are the ports, right?
• 11:57
  Richard Piet: Uh but the goal is that you walk away knowing a lot more than you did before.
• 12:04
  Larry Mason: Yes, absolutely.
• 12:05
  Larry Mason: I mean, I know that's a lot on the buyer side.
• 12:07
  Larry Mason: Um, Richard, I think you live in a neighborhood of well or septic.
• 12:10
  Larry Mason: So if you were buying in your neighborhood today, you would have a home inspection report, a pest inspection report, a radon report, a well and septic inspection report.
• 12:18
  Larry Mason: That's a lot to get done.
• 12:19
  Larry Mason: The realtors and the typical buy sell contract has simplified that a little bit because the pre-printed verbiage says the buyer is not responsible for the home, the radon, and the pest inspections, and the seller is not responsible for the well and septic, if any, if it's not public utility.
• 12:36
  Larry Mason: So that kind of divides it up a little bit, makes it a little bit simpler.
• 12:39
  Richard Piet: An important distinction and uh probably a fair one.
• 12:42
  Richard Piet: I'll ask you both this question.
• 12:44
  Richard Piet: What are some of the reasons, top reasons, one or two, that somebody might say, eh, I don't need that.
• 12:52
  Richard Piet: I don't need a home inspection, I don't need a pest inspection.
• 12:56
  Larry Mason: I have heard it occasionally.
• 12:58
  Larry Mason: It does tend to be a slightly arrogant attitude.
• 13:01
  Larry Mason: I think they're I think they're kind of thinking, oh, I already know.
• 13:05
  Larry Mason: What are they gonna tell me that I don't already know?
• 13:07
  Larry Mason: Yeah.
• 13:08
  Larry Mason: Um often the people that are trying to skip out on inspections, they are some of the worst conditioned homes.
• 13:13
  Larry Mason: Like it's the ones that need the inspection the most.
• 13:16
  Larry Mason: Um, the only other complaint or reason, I guess, for skipping inspections is they'll say the cost.
• 13:23
  Larry Mason: You know, I want to save that money.
• 13:24
  Larry Mason: But it's the best money you'll ever spend.
• 13:27
  Larry Mason: I mean, I believe the average home in this country is currently like $400,000 just for the national average.
• 13:33
  Larry Mason: A pest inspection and a home inspection is gonna save you money in the long run, so you know what you're getting into.
• 13:42
  Richard Piet: Absolutely.
• 13:42
  Richard Piet: Might save you money soon if you're going to put an offer.
• 13:46
  Richard Piet: Yes.
• 13:47
  Richard Piet: Tony, what are some of the excuses you've heard for not doing a pest inspection?
• 13:52
  Tony Sorrentino: Um, they're not worried about it.
• 13:53
  Tony Sorrentino: Oh, I've I've been at places and people have asked me why I'm there.
• 13:58
  Tony Sorrentino: Why are we even getting pest inspections?
• 14:01
  Tony Sorrentino: There's no termites in Michigan.
• 14:03
  Tony Sorrentino: I've heard that.
• 14:04
  Tony Sorrentino: Oh, wow.
• 14:05
  Tony Sorrentino: Most of the time it breaks down to what Larry said is that they're trying to save a few bucks.
• 14:09
  Tony Sorrentino: Yeah.
• 14:09
  Tony Sorrentino: But these inspections go way past curb appeal.
• 14:12
  Tony Sorrentino: It's way past aesthetics.
• 14:14
  Tony Sorrentino: It's about the structural integrity of your home.
• 14:17
  Richard Piet: Yeah.
• 14:17
  Richard Piet: And just because someone may not have seen a pest, I don't see any ants, I don't see any barmots, as uh Yosemite Sam might have said, it must be okay.
• 14:29
  Larry Mason: Yeah.
• 14:29
  Larry Mason: Hey Richard, when I hear that kind of comment from a potential buyer, uh, that means me or Tony will probably find uh damaging evidence within the first four minutes of our inspection.
• 14:38
  Larry Mason: Like the the buyer, the buyers are wrong so often, you know.
• 14:44
  Larry Mason: And I understand they've come through, it's an emotional process.
• 14:47
  Larry Mason: Can they see theirself in this home?
• 14:48
  Larry Mason: Is it close enough to their work?
• 14:50
  Larry Mason: Are the kids gonna like the school?
• 14:52
  Larry Mason: I understand it's a big thing, but what that means is it's an emotional purchase for them and they're they're judging on lots of aesthetic and emotions.
• 15:00
  Larry Mason: When the independent inspectors come in, they don't care about any of those emotions.
• 15:04
  Larry Mason: They're just diving right into the serious stuff and just seeing, you know, what what the current state of the home is.
• 15:10
  Richard Piet: I get it.
• 15:10
  Richard Piet: If you've looked at a bunch of homes and you you don't feel it, uh I personally have to go stand in a house and say, okay, I feel it.
• 15:18
  Richard Piet: Uh this is it.
• 15:20
  Richard Piet: And now if you have that, if something threatens that and you're afraid of it, it might be easy to say, I don't need that.
• 15:27
  Richard Piet: Or uh maybe I don't want to know.
• 15:30
  Tony Sorrentino: Uh, but you really do want to know.
• 15:32
  Tony Sorrentino: It's incredible.
• 15:32
  Tony Sorrentino: Oh man, don't overlook it.
• 15:35
  Tony Sorrentino: Don't under underestimate what's happening right under your nose.
• 15:39
  Tony Sorrentino: Okay.
• 15:41
  Richard Piet: You probably have seen that too, Larry, right?
• 15:43
  Richard Piet: Where you walk into a home inspection and there's something glaring.
• 15:46
  Larry Mason: Yes.
• 15:46
  Larry Mason: I mean, um I remember one, I was actually a fairly new home inspector, but thank goodness I knew what termite shelter tubes were.
• 15:54
  Larry Mason: And I opened the pantry door in the kitchen, and right on the surface of the, it was vacant home, and right on the surface of the drywall was termite tubes.
• 16:01
  Larry Mason: They're about the width of a pencil or so.
• 16:03
  Larry Mason: They look like mud tubes, vertical typically.
• 16:06
  Larry Mason: Sometimes they can kind of branch out.
• 16:07
  Larry Mason: And I called a realtor immediately and I said, Is the buyer ordering a pest inspection or what?
• 16:12
  Larry Mason: And and uh she she actually thanked me.
• 16:14
  Larry Mason: She says, No, I forgot to order one.
• 16:16
  Larry Mason: Thank you so much for reminding me.
• 16:18
  Larry Mason: I said, because I'm staring at problems right here.
• 16:20
  Larry Mason: It's a different trade for sure.
• 16:22
  Larry Mason: It's a different set of expertise for sure.
• 16:24
  Larry Mason: But I think most experienced home inspectors will know at least the basics around a pest inspection, but you still want a licensed pest control company there for sure.
• 16:34
  Richard Piet: And that's where we'll leave it.
• 16:35
  Richard Piet: Tony Sorentino, Pest Pros of Michigan, Larry Mason, Great Lakes Home Inspections.
• 16:41
  Richard Piet: Thank you for the insights.
• 16:44
  Richard Piet: Thank you.
• 16:44
  Tony Sorrentino: Thanks, Richard.